Recently, the public has become increasingly concerned with disease and its transmission, and as such, there is an increased awareness of the importance of hand cleansing and hygiene in general. For example, with respect to the transmission of E. coli in the food services industry, the rhinovirus in elementary schools, and nosocomial diseases within healthcare facilities, numerous studies have cited hand hygiene as an effective measure to guard against disease transmission. In response, health care, food service, and hotel and travel industries have been forced to examine their hygiene protocols and procedures to ensure that their personnel are adopting habits that are efficacious in the prevention of disease transmission.
In order to minimize the possibility of the transmission of bacteria or viruses by hand washing, full compliance with hand washing hygiene standards must be observed, as the failure of one individual to properly sanitize his or her hands can negate the efforts of others who come in contact with such individual. Thus, to ensure employees or other individuals have sufficient access to sanitizer, the current trend has been to permanently install full-size dispensers at designated areas throughout a building or work area. Such dispensers are rigidly affixed to a wall or counter and are capable of being refilled with sanitizer when they are emptied.
Unfortunately, such full-size fixed dispensers require that users return to them each time they are in need of sanitizer, which is inconvenient as users generally require multiple sanitizer applications throughout the day. Also, if the user is required to travel out of his or her way to obtain the sanitizer from the fixed dispenser, then he or she may be less inclined to sanitize their hands in accordance with predetermined hygiene protocols. In addition, installation of a sufficient quantity of fixed sanitizer dispensers to provide complete coverage throughout a facility, such as a hospital, would require a substantial cost. Moreover, in such a circumstance where there is a substantial number of full-size, fixed dispensers installed, an employee must periodically refill the sanitizer dispensers, which is costly and time consuming.
Alternatively, while portable dispensers are available, they are inconvenient to refill with liquid material, such as soap or sanitizer. In addition, such portable dispenser devices fail to acquire hygiene compliance data, which is desirable.
Therefore, there is a need for a portable compliance dispenser that is worn or carried by a user. In addition, there is a need for a portable compliance dispenser that is able to dispense liquid material, such as sanitizer, that collects and transmits hygiene compliance data to a remote monitoring station. Still yet, there is a need for a portable compliance monitor that dispenses liquid material, such as sanitizer, from a replaceable refill container.